Mboko Earns WTA Top 200 Win; Qualifying Complete at Evansville $60K, Champaign $25K; Shelton Leads USO Wild Card Challenge, But Won't Need It; Clay Court 12s Recaps; NCAA D-I Update

Canadian Victoria Mboko, who turns 16 next month, defeated top seed and WTA 190 Valentini Grammatikopoulou of Greece 6-7(1), 6-1, 6-3 today in the first round of the $25,000 ITF World Tennis Tour women's tournament in Saskatoon Saskatchewan. Mboko, who reached the semifinals at Wimbledon earlier this month, is currently No. 13 in the ITF junior rankings. In the second round, she will face longtime doubles partner Kayla Cross, who received a wild card into the main draw and beat fellow Canadian 17-year-old Cadence Brace in the first round yesterday.

Americans playing in Saskatoon this week include Elvina Kalieva[2], Hurricane Tyra Black[3], Jessie Aney[4](UNC), Elysia Bolton[6](UCLA) and Madison Sieg(USC).

The reason for so many Americans in Canada this week is that there is only one tournament for women on the USTA Pro Circuit, a $60,000 tournament in Evansville Indiana. Temperatures in the upper 90s have delayed the completion of two of the four first round matches today, but the qualifying is complete, with six Americans advancing to the main draw: Vicky Duval, Chanelle Van Nguyen(UCLA), Christina Rosca(Vanderbilt), Reese Brantmeier(North Carolina), Maegan Manasse(Cal) and Ava Markham(Wisconsin). 

Alycia Parks was the top seed, but she lost in the first round today to Katherine Sebov of Canada 6-2, 6-0. Robin Anderson(UCLA) is the No. 2 seed, and she will face 18-year-old Katrina Scott Wednesday.

Wild cards were given to Peyton Stearns(Texas), Eryn Cayetano(USC), Hina Inoue and Kollie Allen(Ohio State).

The men's USTA Pro Circuit events this week are the new ATP Challenger 80 in Indianapolis and a $25,000 tournament in Champaign Illinois.

In Champaign, the wild cards were given to Ryan Harrison and three University of Illinois players: Hunter Heck, Alexander Petrov and Karlis Ozolins of Latvia. 

Americans advancing to the main draw through qualifying are Stefan Dostanic(USC) and Harvard recruit Cooper Williams, with Alex Brown(Illinois) getting in as a lucky loser. 2021 NCAA Division III singles and doubles champion Leo Vithoontien(Carleton) of Japan also reached the main draw with two qualifying victories.

The top two seeds are Pedja Krstin of Serbia and Omni Kumar(Duke).

At the Indianapolis Challenger, 17-year-old wild card Nishesh Basavareddy stayed with top seed Peter Gojowczyk of Germany throughout, but fell 7-6(4), 7-6(3). Basavareddy, ranked No. 6 in the ITF juniors was down a break in both sets, but got that break back immediately each time. In the tiebreakers however, ATP No. 93 Golowczyk gave away no points, while Basavareddy couldn't get the first serves he needed when it mattered.

The only American to pick up a win today in Indianapolis was Florida rising junior Ben Shelton, who beat former North Carolina star Rinky Hijikata of Australia 6-3, 6-4. The 2022 NCAA singles champion, who plays No. 2 seed Tim Van Rijthoven of the Netherlands in the second round, joins Alex Rybakov(TCU), Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech) and Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois), as Americans who won their first round matches. 

After reaching the final last week at the Rome Challenger, Shelton leads the USTA's US Open Wild Card Challenge, but according to the release the USTA sent out last week, he won't need it, as they are confirming that he will receive a main draw wild card as the NCAA singles champion. From Monday's release:

Standings Update -- US Open Wild Card Challenge   Orlando, Fla., July 18, 2022 – If it were possible to earn two singles wild cards into the US Open in the same year, Ben Shelton would be well on his way.    The 19-year old Floridian leads the Men's US Open Wild Card Challenge after Week 1, with 54 points from reaching the final at the USTA Pro Circuit Challenger 80 in Rome, Ga. Shelton, though, won't need the wild card bestowed upon the Challenge's victor, as the University of Florida product won the 2022 NCAA men's singles title and will receive a wild card into the US Open as such. Should Shelton end up winning the Challenge, the wild card would go to the next eligible player in the standings.    The standings after Week 1 of 5 for the men are as follows:   *1. Ben Shelton -- 54 T2. J.J. Wolf -- 16 T2. Aleks Kovacevic -- 16 T2. Bjorn Fratangelo -- 16   *Will receive WC as NCAA singles champion

The Tennis Recruiting Network is publishing recaps of all eight of the USTA Clay Court National Championships this week, kicking things off today with articles on Jordan Lee's win in the boys 12s, and Hannah Ayrault's title in the girls 12s.

John Parsons has an update on last month's NCAA Division I Tennis Committee meeting, with news that the move of the NCAA individual tournament to the fall will be voted on in August, after the ITA completes a survey of coaches this month. For more on that, and on the push to get college tennis on TV, the duration of the Super Regional experiment, bracket integrity and other issues see John's post at his No-ad, No Problem blog.